Date: Mon, 17 Jan 94 22:47:13 EST
From: Jim.Rees@umich.edu
Subject: the train

Friday afternoon I hopped on the California Zephyr for a short trip to San
Francisco.  Amtrak has apparently never solved their equipment problems in
low temperatures.  I remember one time waiting in Washington Union Station
for 20 minutes for the doors to thaw out on the Silver Meteor so we could
de-train.  Another time I went all the way from Boston to NYC on a train
with no heat or power in freezing conditions.

This time, the train made it, but was eight hours late by the time it got to
Oakland.  Most of the delay was weather related, but we also waited an hour
outside of Salt Lake City for a track crew to arrive and repair a stretch of
rail that had been ripped out by a salt scraper.

We had no dining car service the second day, because all the food had
frozen.  In contrast, when I went from Beijing to Moscow in 1989, the
temperature was about -35 C, but everything worked, and we were on time
after a six day trip.

One of my fellow travelers explained that the late Amtrak train was really a
blessing, because we were getting to ride the train for eight more hours
without having to pay extra.

I had lunch one day on the train with a retired Boston subway motorman.  He
explained that he has no permanent home, and spends all his time riding the
rails with his social security income, senior discount, and children
scattered around the country to stay with.  He's like the Winnebago retirees
who travel the country in packs, communicating by CB and descending on state
campgrounds, except that his Winnebago is hauled by a diesel locomotive.  Or
maybe he's a modern-day Amtrak hobo.  His baggage consisted of two paper
shopping bags from Nordstrom's.

Another passenger, in his 70s, had crossed the country several times by
bicycle, often on freeway shoulders.  He ran down the list of states, roads,
and bike paths, complained about the speed bumps on the freeway shoulders in
Colorado, talked about the best approach to Couer d'Alene from Spokane, how
to ride the side streets into downtown Chicago.  I tried to stump him.  How
would he have done my old commute from Somerville to Chelmsford?  He knew
all about the shortcut on Lowell Street from Foot of the Rocks in Arlington,
and about the gap in the Middlesex Turnpike near Burlington.  How would he
approach Seattle?  Around the north end of the lake, of course, and down the
Burke-Gillman trail.  This guy knew his way around.

There was a pair of tourists from Brazil sitting behind me.  I asked them
about the train from Rio to Sao Paulo.  They said it had stopped running a
few years back, after years of neglect.  At the end it had taken 10 hours by
train, and only five by bus.  There are no long distance trains left in
Brazil.  At dinner they wanted to know what BBQ chicken was all about.  Try
to explain this to a foreigner some time.  Does anyone know exactly what's
in the sauce?  Of course not, it's always a secret.

On Thursday I'm going to San Luis Obispo.  My plan had been to go from there
to L.A., then over to Houston.  But due to an earthquake, the trains are not
running south of Santa Barbara.  Like the eight hour bonus on the Zephyr, I
view this as an opportunity.  From SLO I'll go as far south as Amtrak will
take me.  I hope that's Santa Barbara, which would be a great place to get
stuck.  I'll then have all weekend to get to Houston (I have to go to work
there on Monday).  I may have to buy an outrageously expensive one-way
airplane ticket, but this is my kind of travel.  I like it best when I don't
know where I'm going next or when I'll get there.  Nothing is quite so
constraining as an onward ticket, except maybe staying home.